Charles Leclerc reviewed Ferrari’s Barcelona shakedown and explained what the team’s programme will be ahead of the highly anticipated Bahrain tests.
After driving during the morning session, Charles Leclerc handed the car over to Lewis Hamilton for the final session of the Barcelona shakedown. Over the three days made available by the FIA, the two Ferrari drivers were able to get their first real taste of the SF-26, completing a significant number of laps without encountering any major issues.
This is an aspect that should not be underestimated and allows the Maranello-based team to return home with a wealth of data to analyze before flying to Bahrain for the official tests, which will begin to offer the first real indications with a view to the championship.
Speaking about the work carried out at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Charles Leclerc summed up the situation at the end of his final session on track. “We completed the programme, doing everything we intended to do. Since we were at the end of the test, we started to push a little more and I began to understand the limits of the car a bit better. Overall, I would say it was a positive shakedown. On the first day we had rain, which complicated the conditions a bit, and it wasn’t easy to drive a brand-new car. But it still allowed us to collect information even in wet conditions. The rest of the days went well and we stuck to the programme,” the Monegasque told Formula 1’s official channels.
Charles outlines Ferrari’s next steps
Leclerc then went on to explain what Ferrari’s programme will look like now that the Barcelona commitments have been completed. “I think there’s a bit of excitement throughout the paddock. All these changes force us to adapt and to maximize the new packages, especially considering that energy management is different compared to the past. There’s not much more to say because it’s really early days, and we can’t wait to go to Bahrain. In the meantime, we’ll spend the whole week in Maranello to analyze the data and prepare the tests as well as possible. We’ll do some testing work and focus on the correlation between the car and the simulator, so that we can then have realistic simulations during the season.” – the Monegasque driver pointed out
Charles Leclerc’s positive outlook at the conclusion of the Barcelona shakedown highlights a successful transition for Ferrari into this new technical era, with the SF-26 proving to be a reliable and responsive baseline. By emphasizing the importance of simulator correlation and energy management, the Monegasque driver has pinpointed the key battlegrounds where the 2026 championship may be won or lost in these early stages. As the team heads back to Italy to process the vast amounts of data gathered, the focus remains clear: ensuring that every virtual kilometer at Maranello translates into real-world performance when the lights go green for the official tests in Bahrain.
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